Welcome to the Kitchen!—daily poetry and news from NorCal and Rattlesnake Press (poetry with fangs!). Read our DIARY, the cream-colored section at the left, for poets local and otherwise. Then scroll down our GREEN AND BLUE BULLETIN BOARDS on the right for more poet-phernalia. And please feel free to be a SNAKEPAL and send your work, events and releases to kathykieth@hotmail.com—see "Placating the Gorgon" in the FUCHSIA LINKS right below here for info. Carpe Viperidae!

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Custer's Last Stand

Ted Finn at Mt. Shasta

Today's poems are from Ted Finn's book, Damn the Eternal War, which was published by Rattlesnake Press in 2008 (SpiralChap #10). Ted, who passed away from cancer in March of this year, was active in the Sacramento poetry community in the past. A tribute reading will be held for him this coming Thursday, April 30, at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento, 8pm (hosted by frank andrick), at which time poets are welcome to come read and talk about Ted.

* * * * *

THE NIGHTMARE (after Kirby Congdon)

finally wakes up
on Elm Street
and walks off shivering
into unforgiving Monday morning,

late for work again.

what are the slasher’s
blood-splattered knives
against the unending flesh
of fast-food chicken?

now the Martians have announced
they are calling off their invasion.
of course,
our lawyer is suing for breach of promise,
but the case won’t come up for months.

meanwhile,
everything goes on just like before;
there’s no escape.

______________________

INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH BLONDE

her dark-colored lips open wide
like the mouth of hell,
laughing at the stupidity of it all.
the cash register clangs open.
"would you like
to use your charge card, sir?”
the bartender asks.
dollar bills stack up
like bodies dead of plague,
ready to be burned.
she wears black
against light flesh tones,
tight on the curves,
skidding off the shoulder,
driving it fast,
hard through the night.
cigarette in one hand.
bottle of beer in the other.
the stink of smoke
and stale beer growing
as the crowd thickens.
everyone screaming
to be heard
above the jukebox blasting.
of course, one morning
the party is finally over,
and pretty scrapes off
with the make-up.

_____________________

you know there’s no escape from the wild vision,
nowhere to run,
nowhere to hide where it won’t find you,
screaming at you,
live, damn it. live.
you can’t escape the vision.
some night too exhausted to resist,
like surrendering to your lover in the dark.
you know some night you will surrender to the wild vision,
in the quiet,
in the few precious moments you’ve stolen
from too busy all the time,
you will let yourself go
into all the places
you want to live,
letting the vision penetrate deeper into you.
you know you don’t need this roaring through you,
a wild roller coaster ride,
all ups and downs.
you need safe and solid,
a coffin you can live in.
you don’t need this hold on tight the ride,
always somewhere between
I can’t wait for this to be over
and I never want this to end.
you know you don’t need this,
if it wasn’t every dream you woke up excited,
as if life could be that exciting,
when you know it’s dangerous to believe that,
dangerous to live like that,
as if there were any other way
you could live,
you would want to live,
like every exciting you’ve lived
you know you’ll never regret,
licking your lips
to get the last possible taste of it.

______________________

THE ATTACK OF THE LONG, BORING POEM

there is a clever and insidious criminal presently at large,
freely roaming the streets of San Francisco,
rampantly extorting money from helpless passersby
by reading long, boring poems.
carefully choosing his victims,
people who look like they will give anything
just to be left alone,
he rushes up to them,
soiled pages in hand.
—let me read you my poem,
he says.
he then begins his assault.
a victim, a friend, a local lawyer had been to poetry readings;
he had heard bad poetry before,
but nothing quite so relentlessly awful
that it could only have been created
to leave whoever heard it begging for mercy,
paying whatever was demanded.
—how much will it cost me to get you to stop?
he asks the man.
—five bucks, the man tells him.
my friend gives the man a five
and watches him rush off to find another victim.
who needs a gun to rob when you have a long, boring poem to read?

______________________

CUSTER’S LAST STAND

you get old enough.
the sky rains arrows

you lose slowly if you’re lucky.
the chips on the table dwindle
as the bets echo ancient fears.

the little deaths Neruda called them.
death of dream.
death of hope for love.
I know the fear.
I know how humbling the losses.

however fragile the dance,
however voodoo dirge the death song,
if dance slows only to sway,
if only the slow recessional,
the final blessing is the long way home.
if only slowly losing,
if no other mercy but that,
I am graced by the bare ruins of my life.

never often enough the exhilaration.
twisting and turning in the darkness,
we see only divine light,
God at last singing,
mad dancers to the music,
everywhere around us in the festival night.
because we have lost ourselves in
unholy visions,
we dance only to sacred music.
because work lies in wait a day away,
because we sell ourselves to the slow slaughter,
we dance at last the mad dance the music demands.

OUR BULLETIN BOARD ON THE KITCHEN WALL: Get Stoned on Medusa and Her Bad-Hair Days

Medusa: That moody Gorgon from whose head so many Snakes do sproingggg...

CARPE VIPERIDAE—Seize the Snake!

Snake Drawings are bySam the Snake Man

POETRY NOOZ— Local & Otherwise—

100K POETS FOR CHANGE 9/30

100 Thousand Poets [or more] for Change unite Sept. 30 to make their voices heard for a better world: see 100tpc.org/. Sac. Poetry Center celebrates that day with a reading/book launch beginning at noon. Be there!

OUR SEED OF THE WEEK—

...isThe Naked Truth.Click onPlacating the GorgonorCalliope's Closet(in theFUCHSIA LINKSat the top of Medusa) for info on ourSeeds of the Week (SOWs),and keep scrolling down this green board for different types of SOWs. But don't be shy: send poems/photos/art about other subjects, too, to kathykieth@hotmail.com/. No deadline on SOWS, and no need to be just a lurker...!

Need more SOWS?

For previous Seeds of the WeekandForms to Fiddle With, plus other cool stuff, scroll back up to the FUCHSIA LINKSand click onCalliope's Closet. (Wow! What a list of SOWS we have there!—several years' worth!)•••Go toWriter's Digestand find the poetry prompts at "Poetic Asides": www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides

•••The biannual onlineThe Prompt,by the way, publishes only poems written from prompts: promptlitmag.org/. See their Editor's Challenge, too!

FORMS WTH WHICH TO FIDDLE

For those of us who love pain...

[Scroll back up to theFUCHSIA LINKSand click onMedusa Mullsfor where we stand on poetry forms. And go toCalliope's Closet for a complete list of forms we've done in the past.]

MORE FOOD for the BRAIN

This is your brain on poetry...

Here are some items of note to get your brain a-stewin'. Or scroll back up to the FUCHSIA LINKS at the top of the blog for even more in On-Going Workshops/Retreats—not to mention spoons and ladles like Calliope's Closet and Publishing— all designed to stir up those poetry brain juices of yours!

SUBMIT, I SAY— SUBMIT!

Get your poetry out into the world—

Hint:Our FUCHSIA LINKonPublishingat the top of Medusa might help you get started with your submissions journey, and here are some other journals and contests that may be looking for YOU (you won't know unless you try).

•••Rattle is also looking for a poem written within a week of a public event that occurred within the last week. The chosen poems will appear every Sunday on their website.Selected poets will receive $25. To have your own poemconsidered for next week’s posting, submit it before midnight Friday PST. See www.rattle.com/poetry/submissions/guidelines (Scroll down to "Poets Respond".)

•••HEArt Online seeks outstanding writing and art that speaks to our mission: promoting the role of artists ashuman rights activists through public recognition of art asa vehicle for social reform. Please submit only unpublishedwork (except music & videos) that deals artistically withfighting discrimination and promoting social justice,addressing issues of sexuality, race, class, etc. See heartjournalonline.com

•••The Moore Time for Poetry series on Channel 17 Comcast/Surewest cable, AT&T U-verse Channel 99, or view online at www.accesssacramento.org and click on the "Watch Channel 17" button. First and Third Tuesdays at 10 p.m., First and Third Wednesdays at 2 p.m., First and Third Thursdays at 6 a.m. Hosted by Terry Moore. Call 916-208-7638 for more info.

Don't see your reading event listed on Medusa? That's probably because you didn't send it to us! We try to find every event in our area, but sometimes we miss, or even though we see an event listed as "on-going", we might not list it because we're not sure—maybe you've taken a week off. So keep us in the know, and we'll do our best to advertise for you. It's such a shame to invite poets to read for you, and then to fail to advertise them.

Want to learn about some Bay Area events? Debralee Pagan (debralee@astoundnet) publishes an e-newsletter called "Strictly East" (Poetry Past the Caldecott Tunnel)—email her for a free subscription. See also www.poetryflash.org.

•••Thurs. (12/14), 7-8:30pm: Winters Out Loud Poetry Open Mic, Berryessa Gap Wine Tasting, 15 Main St., Winters. Host: Deborah Shaw Hickerson.•••Sat. (12/23): Writers on the Air will not meet, due to its winter lay-off.

And there's always Luna's...

Every Thurs. night, 8pm: Be sure to check out Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe (1414 16th St., Sacramento) at least once in your life! 20 years of wild/crazy poetry, with featured readers and plenty of open mic—not to mention Art Luna's wonderful food and dandy libations! Readings are free, but a one-drink minimum purchase is appreciated. Click/pic for more about Luna's Cafe, or see www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEIRBEEqNtw for more about Poetry Unplugged. And get there early!

If you are an Amazon shopper, don't forget to make your purchase through smile.amazon.com. Designate the Sac. Poetry Center so that they may receive a 0.5% donations. (This doesn't change the price of the items.) A win for your non-profit!

AND NOW FOR MORE FUN—

HOT, HOT JOURNALS FULL OF HOT, HOT POETRY!

Online and otherwise—

Here are some journals and other publications that are local-ish (okay, there are some Bay Area ones in here, too). If we've left anybody out, let us know!

Plus, keep an eye on the college scene. Some of those journals accept submissions from non-students, though they usually have more limited (mostly annual) deadlines. Go to Medusa's Hot Links for Calaveras Station, Penumbra, Suisun Valley Review, Cosumnes River Journal, but be aware that college journals come and go in this time of tight funding.

...keep scrolling down this skinny blue box for NorCal online journals, publishers, more than 100 Hot Links and much, much more!

POETRY NOW

Get your poetry NOW—

Poetry Now is the quarterly journal from Sacramento Poetry Center. Click/pic for submissions guidelines.

EKPHRASIS

Ekphrastic writing done right—

Ekphrastic writing ain't easy, but this semi-annual journal, edited by Sacramento's Carol and Laverne Frith, shows us how it's done. (Art is supposed to be a springboard for ekphrastic poems, not just a description of the scene.) Click/pic to order your copies. The Friths also offer the Ekphrasis Prize every year.

BREVITIES

A Wee Wonder!

Joyce Odam's half-sized Brevities packs a wallop with its monthly collection of poets from around the country. E-mail Joyce about submissions at joyceofwords@gmail.com.

MUNYORI LITERARY JOURNAL

Joanne Hillhouse (photo by Andy Williams)

Click/pic to go to Munyori Literary Journal (online), edited by Sacramento's Emmanuel Sigauke and featuring writers from around the world.

SONG OF THE SAN JOAQUIN

Song of the San Joaquin (print), edited by Salida's Cleo Griffith, is a quarterly journal of the San Joaquin chapter of Calif. Fed. of Chaparral Poets, Inc. Subject matter is the Central Valley, whether you live there or not. There is a reading in Modesto to premier each issue. Click/pic for more.

BLUE MOON

Sacramento artist and writer Jennifer O'Neill Pickering is the featured artist in the latest issue (#8) of Blue Moon Literary and Art Review (print). Click/pic for more info. Available at Avid Reader in Sac. and Davis, and in Davis at Newsbeat, Konditorei Austrian Pastry Cafe, John Natsoulas Ctr. for the Arts, Rominger West Winery.

MANZANITA WRITERS PRESS

Manzanita Writers sponsors publications, workshops and readings in Calaveras County under the guiding hand of Monika Rose, including their weekly radio program for writers (manzapress.com/radiotv). Click/pic for more.

GINOSKO

POETRY FLASH

Literary Review and Calendar

The venerable Poetry Flash (online, print), edited and published for a very long time by Joyce Jenkins, is the go-to publication for the Bay Area and much of NorCal. Click/pic for a look-see.

TEA PARTY (OAKLAND)

No, not THAT tea party...

Here's a lively print publication out of Oakland... Click/pic for more.

LATEST CANARY!

Click/pic for the latest issue of Canary, an online literary/poetry journal of the environmental crisis, pub. by Hip Pocket Press. The Entrekins live in Orinda now, but they used to live in Grass Valley. HP Press also publishes books and the online Sisyphus.

POEMS-FOR-ALL

The wee-est of books with plenty of punch!

Richard Hansen's tiny Poems-for-Allare published out of San Diego now. Click/pic for more.

ABOUT THE SWAN

What's the Latest?

Click pic for what's new fromSwan Scythe Press.

R.L. CROW

Bill Gainer's R.L. Crow Publications has a distinguished history of publishing distinguished poets. Click/pic to check them out. R.L. Crow also sponsors The Magnet Project—beautiful square magnets with poems from local poets (art design by Richard Hansen). These are free; look for them at The Book Collector or from Bill or Richard.

SIX FT. SWELLS

Todd Cirillo, Julie ValinandMatt Amottpublish After Hours Poetry of their own and others in occasional anthologies and other books. Click/pic for more.

KOOL STUFF FROM KAMINI

Kamini is a long way away, but they do publish locals likeAnnie Menebrokerand other Snake Pals. Click/pic for their latest.

PRESA PRESS

Presa Press publishes books and magazines, including Presa Magazine, focusing on the lively small press poets—including many Snake Pals from around the country. Click/pic for more.

LATEST FROM LUMMOX

Click/pic for what's new from R.D. Armstrong's Lummox!

______________________

MEDUSA'S CLASSIFIEDS

Send us your "classifieds" (these are whatever YOU think they are...)!

WANT TO FIND PAST POEMS THAT APPEARED ON MK?Once posted, our poems remain in the cybersphere forever and ever. (Scary!—Medusa's past lives after her.) To find them, go to the white search bar at the tippy-top left-hand corner of MK, next to the red letter (is that an "e" or a "b"?), and type in the poet's name (be sure you have the correct spelling, initials, etc.). Voilà!—every post in which that name appears will show up right there on the blog! Or, if you know the date the poem was posted, we also have —> —>